Beavers are being looked at as little climate change fighting machines

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Author: Sarah Koenigsberg

Like beavers themselves, the human subjects of Koenigsberg’s documentary, The Beaver Believers, are climate change activists.

“They’re almost seeing climate change as an opportunity to act, to get involved, to fix problems we’ve actually had in our watersheds for several decades now. That just struck me as exactly the kind of inspiring climate change story that we really need to be telling,” says Koenigsberg, a Washington-based filmmaker.

“The Beaver Believers” features the stories of people who share the common passion of restoring the beaver in the West by trapping and relocating the animals to habitats that could use a beaver’s touch.

Sherry Tippee, a hairdresser and an animal lover from Colorado, heard of beavers that were going to be killed because they had taken up residence in an urban environment. She saved them, and had gone on to become the leading live trapper in all of Colorado.

Of the six people featured in the film, some work for the federal government or the forest service, while others are like Tippee: people who have found purpose reintroducing beavers to their former lands.

Before European fur trappers arrived in America, beavers numbered in the millions.

Keep Reading on PRI

The Future of the Organic Movement: Organic 3.0

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Author: Susanna Byrd

Organic is due for a re-haul, according to a recent discussion paper released by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) during the International Organic Exposition held in Goesan, Korea in October. The report, Organic 3.0: For Truly Sustainable Farming and Consumption, proposes the worldwide launch of a new phase of the organic movement.

From the visionary phase of organic agriculture in the early 20th century (termed Organic 1.0) to the acceptance of industry regulation and certification from the 1970s to the present (Organic 2.0), the movement towards sustainable food systems has enjoyed growth and success. By 2015, 82 countries had implemented regulations for organic food systems. By 2013, the global market for organic food was valued at US$72 billion.

Despite these accomplishments, however, organic agriculture currently represents less than 1 percent of global land and food production. The IFOAM report argues that the world must now enter into a new organic paradigm, referred to as Organic 3.0, which would address and resolve shortfalls of the current movement. The ultimate goal of Organic 3.0 is to propel organic agriculture out of its current “niche” role and towards a mainstream acceptance of organic practices, along every node of the supply chain. Organic 3.0 proposes a global effort “positioning organic as a modern, innovative system which puts the results and impacts of farming in the foreground.”

The report repeatedly emphasizes the idea of “true sustainability,” admitting that current organic systems struggle to address issues like fair pricing, new farming technologies, and the important role of smallholder, non-certified farmers.

Keep Reading in Food Tank

A Message of Hope: Regeneration International at COP21 in Paris

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When we invited activists, authors, farmers, filmmakers and scientists from 16 countries to camp out with us at a hostel in Paris for the 2015 COP21 Climate Summit, we weren’t sure who would show up, or how things would go.

It turned out even better than we imagined. About 80 people, from Argentina, Australia, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Switzerland, Spain, the U.S, and Zimbabwe joined us, for all or part of the two-week COP21, at St. Christopher’s Inn Canal, sister hostel of the Place to B. The hostel, and a nearby rented apartment, turned out to be great venues for formal, organized workshops, plus a lot of informal networking and ad hoc meetings.

We went to Paris with a message of hope: Regenerative food, farming and land use can cool the planet and feed the world. Our intention was to change the climate conversation because to date, the conversation has focused almost exclusively on emissions reduction. We absolutely must reduce fossil fuel emissions. But emissions reduction is only a 50-percent solution. Even if we were to cut all human-induced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions today, the globe would continue to warm for decades or even centuries to come.

However, there is hope. There is growing scientific evidence that regenerative agriculture can reverse climate change by drawing carbon into the soil through the natural process of photosynthesis, while at the same time delivering other essential ecological, economic and health benefits.

Ronnie Cummins, international director of the Organic Consumers Association and Via Organica, and a member of the RI Steering Committee, told one gathering:soil story eiffel

“A growing number of us here in Paris are determined to change the prevailing gloom and doom conversation on climate, and instead focus on practical solutions, Global regeneration requires a revolution, not only in our thinking, but in our heretofore tunnel vision. We need to move beyond mere mitigation or sustainability concepts that simply depress or demobilize people to a bold new global strategy of regeneration,” he added.

Success! The climate conversation evolves!

We accomplished our goal in Paris. We helped change the conversation. For the first time, the international community now recognizes the potential for healthy soils to reverse climate change.

On December 1, 2015, France launched a global initiative endorsed by 100 partners, including 25 countries. The “4 per 1000 Initiative: Soils for Food Security and Climate” consists of a voluntary action plan under the Lima-Paris Action Agenda (LPAA) that aims to show that food security and combating climate change are complementary. The initiative also positions farmers as the pioneering climate heroes of our generation.

Commenting on the French 4 per 1000 Initiative, André Leu, president of IFOAM Organics International, said:

“We know we can put carbon in the soil. The world has accepted it. Now we have to talk about how to scale this up. What we are about to do now is change agriculture forever. It is the biggest paradigm shift in the history of the climate change movement. On December 1-2, agriculture finally made it into the climate talks. It went from being ignored to being central to climate change. This is huge. The time for talking is finished. Now is the time for doing. The technology is available to everyone. It is up to us to mobilize in time. Let’s start working to get this done and give our world a better future.”

The words “agriculture” and “soil carbon” do not explicitly appear in the official UNFCCC agreement. But that’s okay!  Here’s why. Each country is required to provide something called an Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), a document in which they outline their plan for climate mitigation and adaptation. According to an analysis conducted by CGIAR of the first 150 country INDCs submitted ahead of the UN climate talks, 80 percent of commitments included agriculture in mitigation targets, and 64 percent included agriculture in their adaptation strategies.” Under the Lima-Paris Action Agenda, these INDCs will be reviewed every five years and do not begin until 2020.

“It is important to understand that there is plenty of scope to have farming and soil carbon included in the INDCs between now and 2020,” Leu said.

Demonstrations, press conferences, workshops and more!

In addition to attending the formal COP21 negotiations, the RI delegation participated in and hosted a variety of alternative events, workshops and demonstrations.

Here’s a list of some notable events RI members either organized, sponsored or participated in:

  • On November 29, we joined tens of thousands of activists who took to the streets to peacefully defy the French government’s ban on street demonstrations. A delegation of North and Latin American regeneration activists joined the protest, holding hands in a human chain stretching for miles. We lined up at the corner of Boulevard Voltaire and Allée du Philosophe. Our section of the animated chain, designated “solutions,” was punctuated with colorful homemade signs, T-shirts and banners. We were a boisterous group, whose most popular chant, repeated over and over again in Spanish, English and French, drew smiles and thumbs-up reactions from Parisians passing by:“El pueblo unido, jamas sera vencido” or “The people united will never be defeated”.
  • On December 3, the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), IFOAM International Organics, Navdanya, Regeneration International (RI), and Millions Against Monsanto, joined by dozens of global food, farming and environmental justice groups, held a press conference to  announce that they will organize a citizens tribunal to hold Monsanto accountable for crimes against nature and humanity, and ecocide. The tribunal will take place next year, The Hague, Netherlands, beginning October 12 and ending on World Food Day, October 16, 2016.
  • Also on December 3, 2015, Kiss the Ground, Project Drawdown, and RI hosted a workshop on regenerative agriculture and land use which brought together soil and carbon enthusiasts. Participants exchanged skills and knowledge on regenerative agriculture and land use, soil carbon sequestration, climate change mitigation. Some, like Pedro Diniz, also shared ecosystem restoration success stories. Pedro and his team shared the inspiring story of how they restored Fazenda da Toca. Today, this large-scale family-owned organic farm in Brazil’s São Paulo state is changing the future of ecological agriculture.
  • On World Soil Day, December 5, 2015, which coincided with COP21, artists, environmental and spiritual leaders, seed defenders, community supported agriculture networks, and concerned citizens gathered at La Villette in Paris and planted a ‘Garden of Hope’.  We launched a Pact with the Earth and with each other to defend our commons—our seeds, soil, water, biodiversity, air and climate systems—essential to building climate resilience. We reaffirmed that in regenerative agriculture and local food systems lie the answers to the food, nutrition and health crises, water and climate crises, and the refugee crisis caused by climate instability.
  • On December 6, we hosted a workshop at the People’s Climate Summit where panelists and participants discussed a 2016 action plan for global regeneration. Precious Phiri (EarthWisdom Consulting) highlighted the importance of eating regeneratively. “Education in Southern Africa is key. I get rejection from the educated in Zimbabwe because there is dependency. People think that we need GMOs, we need industrial agriculture to survive,” she said. Laura Lengnick, author of “Resilient Agriculture,” called for the transformation of the food system: “The way we eat has a lot to do with how our communities are organized,” she said.
  • On December 7, over 100 people gathered at La REcyclerie, an urban farm in the heart of Paris and also considered a DESTINATION COP21, to hear a series of short talks and engage in discussions around the theme “Cool the Planet, Feed the World: The Power of Regenerative Food and Farming to Save the Planet.”  La REcyclerie’s mission leading up to COP21 was to educate citizens about the fight against climate change.

What can you do?

(1) Change the climate conversation in your local community or in your local organization from doom and gloom to one of positive solutions, based upon the regeneration perspective. Join Regeneration International’s Facebook page. Publicize and share strategic articles, videos and best practices. If you need to study up on how soil sequestration works, read and re-read this pamphlet and go through the major articles in our annotated bibliography.

(2) Join or help organize a local or regional regeneration working group. If you’re ready to become a Regeneration International organizer send an email to info@regenerationinternational.org.

(3) Boycott the industrial food system. Regenerate your health and your diet. Get ready to join OCA and Regeneration International’s soon-to-be-announced global campaign and boycott against Monsanto, factory farms, GMO animal feeds, biofuels and so-called “Climate-Smart Agriculture.” One of the most important things you can do today and every day is to buy and consume organic, grass-fed, locally produced, climate friendly foods.

(4) Help organize and plan regeneration conferences and meetings. Make your plans now to attend our Regeneration International global climate and biodiversity summit in Mexico City December. 1-3, 2016.

A Message from Paris: We Can Reverse Global Warming

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“Humanity stands at the edge of an abyss. We have destroyed the planet, its biodiversity, our water and the climate, and through this destruction, we have destroyed the ecological context for our survival as a species. Ecological destruction and resource grab are generating conflicts, which are being accelerated into full-blown wars and violence. A context of fear and hate is overtaking the human imagination. We need to sow the seeds of peace—peace with the earth and each other, and in so doing, create hope for our future—as one humanity and as part of one Earth community.” – Vandana Shiva, Terra Viva, Pact for the Earth

November 26, 2015

Twenty-three years after the first United Nations Earth/Climate Summit in 1992, in the wake of a savage terrorist attack on November 13 that traumatized Europe, a multinational contingent of activists and stakeholders are gathered here for the COP 21 Climate Summit. A growing number of us here in Paris are determined to change the prevailing gloom and doom conversation on climate, and instead focus on practical solutions. Frustrated by the slow pace of global efforts to address climate change, angered by the “business-as-usual” arrogance of Big Oil, King Coal, industrial agribusiness and indentured politicians, a critical mass of the global grassroots appears ready to step up the pace and embrace a new solutions-based message and strategy that we in the organic movement call Regeneration.

Ten thousand of us took to the streets of Paris on November 28, peacefully defying the government ban on street demonstrations. I, along with a delegation of North American and Latin American Regeneration activists, joined the protest, holding hands with our French and European comrades in a human chain stretching for miles. Our section of the animated chain, punctuated with colorful homemade signs, T-shirts and banners, was designated “Solutions.” Lined up at the corner of Boulevard Voltaire and Allée du Philosophe, our boisterous group’s most popular chant, repeated over and over again in Spanish, English and French, drawing smiles and thumbs-up reactions from Parisians on the streets, was “El pueblo unido, jamas sera vencido” (“The people united will never be defeated).”

Standing at the crossroads of a climate Apocalypse, a growing consensus appears to be emerging: We must not only phase out Big Oil, King Coal and industrial food and farming, and stop polluting the already supersaturated atmosphere and the oceans with additional greenhouse gases, but we must also strip out or draw down approximately 200 billion tons of excess CO2 already blanketing the atmosphere. And we must do this utilizing proven, “shovel-ready” regenerative organic farming and land use practices.

As of today, December 3, more than 50 national governments, activist organizations and stakeholder organizations (including the Organic Consumers Association and our Mexico affiliate, Via Organica) have signed on to the French government’s “4 Per 1000 Initiative: Soils for Food Security and Climate” declaration. The declaration emphasizes that agriculture, and agricultural soils in particular, can play a crucial role in reversing global warming and increasing global food security.

Based on a growing body of farming practices and scientific evidence, the French government’s Initiative invites all partners to declare or to implement practical programs for carbon sequestration in soil and for the types of farming methods used to promote it (e.g. agroecology, agroforestry, conservation agriculture and landscape management). According to Andre Leu, president of IFOAM Organics International, the French Initiative on sequestering atmospheric carbon in soils via regenerative ag practices is “historic, marking the first time that international climate negotiators and stakeholders have recognized the strategic imperative of transforming and regenerating our global food and farming system in order to reverse global warming.”

Zero emissions are necessary, but not enough

Rejecting the standard discourse of 350.org and other climate groups that promote a tunnel-vision focus on “zero emissions by 2050” as the sole solution to stave off runaway global warming and climate catastrophe, a growing corps of Regenerators here in Paris, under the banner of “Refroidir la Planète” (“Cool the Planet”) and “Alimenter le Monde” (“Feed the World’) have begun to build a Regeneration International movement.

This movement is inspired by the practices of thousands of organic farmers, holistic ranchers, pastoralists and indigenous communities across the globe who are demonstrating that truly regenerative farming, grazing, forestry and land use practices, scaled up globally, sequestering in some cases up to 5-10 tons of carbon per acre per year,  literally have the potential to reverse global warming. The co-benefits of this massive recarbonization and regeneration of the soil, grasslands and forests include: reducing rural poverty, improving plant and animal health and food quality, increasing natural water storage in soils, building crop resilience restoring public health, and last, but not least, reducing global strife.

For those who have never heard of regenerative organic food, farming and land use, here’s a short fact sheet (pdf) and a longer annotated bibliography. This new Regeneration paradigm is based on the biological fact that healthy soils, grasslands and forests can literally draw down, through enhanced plant photosynthesis, enough excess carbon from the atmosphere to bring us back to pre-industrial levels of 280 parts per million of CO2.

As IFOAM states in a handout this week at the Paris Climate Summit: “We need to Reverse Climate Change—not just slow it down.” IFOAM goes on to explain:

We need to do more than just stop the increase in greenhouse gas emissions… We also have to drawdown the excess CO2 in the atmosphere to return the climate to the level where it should be—the pre-industrial level. Soils are the greatest carbon sink after the oceans, and hold significantly more carbon than the atmosphere and biomass combined. There is a growing body of published science indicating that regenerative farming systems, including organic agriculture, can strip significant amounts of CO2 out of the atmosphere and sequester it into the soil as soil organic matter. The co-benefits of this regeneration include greater resilience to adverse weather events… better adaptation to climate change… and food security… Regenerative organic farming is based upon current good practices and is a low-cost, shovel-ready solution that does not require untested, potentially catastrophic, hugely expensive geoengineering or carbon capture and storage technologies.

IFOAM’s leaflet goes on to point out that regenerative farming and land use practices are not being put forward as a substitute for stopping fossil fuel emissions, but rather as an essential complementary strategy that is absolutely necessary: “Soil carbon sequestration… and eliminating food and farming emissions… cannot be used to justify continued greenhouse gas pollution… or business as usual… We need to reverse climate change, not just sustain current greenhouse gas levels.”

Regenerating the body politic: connecting the dots for a new “Movement of Movements”

 Global Regeneration requires a revolution, not only in our thinking, but in our heretofore tunnel vision, “my issue is more important than your issue,” “my constituency is more important than your constituency,” model of grassroots organizing. Disempowed, exploited people, overwhelmed by the challenges of everyday survival, don’t have the luxury of connecting the dots between all the issues and focusing on the Big Picture. It’s the job of Regenerators to globalize the struggle, to globalize hope and connect the dots between issues, communities and constituencies. We need to move beyond mere mitigation or sustainability concepts that simply depress or demobilize people to a bold new global strategy of Regeneration.

Healthy soil, healthy plants, healthy animals, healthy people, healthy climate . . . our physical and economic health, our very survival as a species, is directly connected to the soil, biodiversity and the health and fertility of our food and farming systems.

So who will carry out this global Regeneration Revolution?

Of course we must continue, and in fact vastly increase, our pressure on governments and corporations to change public policies and marketplace practices. As indicated above, the most encouraging development at the Climate Summit here in Paris is that a growing number of countries and activist networks are endorsing the French government’s .4% Initiative to pay farmers to move away from the climate destructive practices of industrial agriculture and to sequester carbon in their soils. But in order to truly overturn “business-as-usual” we must inspire and mobilize a vastly larger climate change coalition than the one we have now. Food, climate and economic justice advocates must unite forces so we can educate and mobilize a massive grassroots army of Earth Regenerators: three billion small farmers and rural villagers, ranchers, pastoralists, forest dwellers, urban agriculturalists and indigenous communities—aided and abetted by several billion conscious consumers and urban activists.

The time is late. Circumstances are dire. But we still have time to regenerate the Earth and the body politic.

Here are four things you can do to join the Regeneration Movement.

(1) Change the climate conversation in your local community or in your local organization from doom and gloom to one of positive solutions, based upon the Regeneration perspective.  Join our Regeneration International Facebook page. (https://www.facebook.com/regenerationinternational) Publicize and share strategic articles, videos and best practices. If you need to study up on how soil sequestration works, read and re-read this pamphlet (https://www.organicconsumers.org/news/soil-carbon-restoration-can-biology-do-job) and go through the major articles in our annotated bibliography (https://www.organicconsumers.org/news/regenerative-agriculture-annotated-bibliography)

(2) Join or help organize a local or regional Regeneration working group. If you’re ready to become a Regeneration organizer send an email to info@regenerationinternational.org

(3) Boycott “degenerate” foods. Regenerate your health and your diet. Get ready to join OCA and Regeneration International’s soon-to-be-announced global campaign and boycott against Monsanto, factory farms, GMO animal feeds, biofuels and so-called “Climate-Smart Agriculture.” One of the most important things you can do today and every day is to buy and consume organic, grass-fed, locally produced, climate friendly foods.

(4) Help organize and plan regeneration conferences and meetings. Make your plans now to attend our Regeneration International global climate and biodiversity Summit in Mexico City December. 1-3, 2016.

Ronnie Cummins is international director of the Organic Consumers Association https://www.organicconsumers.org/ (U.S.) and Via Organica https://viaorganica.org/ (Mexico) and a member of the Regeneration International org steering committee. He wrote this from the COP 21 Climate Summit, Paris, France, December 3, 2015

 

5 Ways to Reverse Climate Change Right Now

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Author: Maria Rodale

The Paris Climate Conference (known as COP21) is finally taking place, bringing with it that strange mix of hope mingled with despair. Everyone seems to have his or her own personal agenda (including me) for how the conference should play out—and how we can save ourselves from a climate disaster.

Organizations from all over the globe are bringing to Paris their diverse messages about what should be done: from renewable energy to nuclear; from eating no meat to eating less meat; from super-high-tech solutions to going back to simpler ways. Unfortunately, many leaders are still thinking 20 years out when it comes to climate change—as if we have all the time in the world. And while each of the solutions proposed at COP21 might be essential in the long run, none of them alone is enough RIGHT NOW to make a difference.

However, there is one thing that we can do RIGHT NOW that can not only reverse climate change, but also let all the players pursue their own agendas in peace. We must and can immediately restore the soil’s ability to store carbon. It’s pretty simple, actually. And it’s proven to work.

Here are 5 ways to make that happen right now:

1. Transition all agriculture to organic regenerative agriculture. Numerous studies have shown that organic agriculture restores the ability of the soil to store carbon. Not only is organic agriculture both productive and profitable, but it’s also healthier for everyone, and it doesn’t use petroleum-based fertilizers and chemicals. Note, keeping the soil covered in plant life at all times is essential to carbon storage. That means cover crops! Oh, and bonus: People around the world are demanding organic, so there’s a giant market for what organic regenerative agriculture produces that is just waiting to be filled. (By the way, that means raising animals organically and using as much high tech as you want.)

2. Protect and preserve all wilderness areas, especially forests. Nature knows what to do—forests naturally store tons of carbon. Forests model what agriculture is learning: that nature knows how to protect itself and us if we protect the patterns enabling plants, trees, insects, fungus, birds, and animals to do the work to store carbon.

3. Plant more trees, forests, and gardens. No space should be left bare. Every open space is an opportunity to store carbon in the form of plants, trees, gardens, and healthy soil. Be it by planting a garden or by letting something go wild and “back to nature,” the important thing is to allow the soil to build and grow and do its work.

Keep Reading in Maria’s Farm Country Kitchen

COP21 – Carbon Farming May Figure in Climate Mitigation

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Author: Judith Schwartz

PARIS – Due to an initiative launched by France, there is now an international framework that for the first time brings agricultural soils into climate negotiations. Called “4 per 1000,” this new proposal aims to protect and increase carbon stocks in soil.

The initiative, signed this week by 25 countries including France, Germany, the UK, Mexico and Australia, as well as 75 research and NGO partners, is aimed at combatting climate change by recognizing the ability of soil to act as a sink for greenhouse-gas emissions. The US was not a signatory to the agreement, which occurred parallel to the main climate negotiations.

The “4 per 1000,” which refers to a voluntary pledge of a 0.4 percent annual growth rate in soil carbon content, “is a game-changer”, said Andre Leu, who signed on behalf of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM). “I’ve been engaged with climate negotiations since Copenhagen, and until now we couldn’t even get the word agriculture in the agreements.”

Carbon is an important component of soil, representing 58 percent of organic matter. Through photosynthesis, a plant draws down atmospheric carbon to form carbon compounds, or sugars. Some of this is exuded through the roots to feed soil microorganisms. But when soil is exposed to the air, through tillage or the absence of plant cover, the carbon oxidizes to form CO2. The world’s cultivated soils have lost between 50 and 70 percent of their original carbon stores, according to Rattan Lal, director of Ohio State University’s Carbon Management and Sequestration Center.

Keep Reading in FERN

The MIF and GESGIAP will implement a mechanism to compensate Mexican producers for soil carbon capture and to mitigate climate change

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[ Español ]

The Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), member of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group recently approved a US $845,000 for a project with the Sierra Gorda Ecological Group, I.A.P (GESGIAP). The project will seek to enhance the capacity of 5,000 small-scale producers and market gardeners to mitigate and adapt to climate change through the transfer of a holistic management approach that will allow them to regenerate the soil, improve productivity and generate ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration and water infiltration.  The adoption of the holistic approach will also help them increase their income, lower costs for inputs and get compensation for carbon sequestration in the soil.

Soil degradation in Mexico affects two out of three hectares, resulting in a loss of 10% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This issue is affected by weather events like floods, droughts and changes in the frequency and intensity of rain, but the main cause of soil degradation in the country (35%) is associated with agricultural and livestock activities. The agricultural sector is regarded as one of the main contributors to the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) but at the same time the sector has significant potential for mitigating climate change.  According to the Special Climate Change Program 2014-2018 for Mexico, by 2020 the agricultural sector will be the fifth leading GHG emitter in the country, accounting for 14% of emissions. The program’s main strategies include the implementation of sustainable agricultural, forestry, and fishery practices that reduce emissions and the vulnerability of ecosystems and the development of instruments to promote their implementation.

The approved project aims to address this problem through three actions. First, it will build awareness, train and provide technical assistance to producers through workshops, the establishment of demonstration pilots, the development of grazing plans as well as regional and national forums that facilitate exchanges of knowledge between peers. Second, a measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) system will be designed and implemented to promote transparency in the actions of mitigation attributed to the adoption of the holistic management methodology (monitoring soil carbon sequestration and biological recovery). Third, once the mitigation actions are verified, small-scale producers will be compensated, for their use of the holistic methodology, by a sub-national mechanism that will channel resources from environmental taxes to make the payment for environmental services to small producers. Additionally, these compensations will be offered to companies and/or individuals that wish to neutralize or mitigate their carbon footprint through an online platform.

Keep Reading on the Multilateral Investment Fund’s Website

FOMIN y GESGIAP implementarán mecanismo para compensar a productores mexicanos por capturar carbono en suelo y mitigar el cambio climático

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[ English ]

El Fondo Multilateral de Inversiones (FOMIN), miembro del Grupo Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID), aprobó recientemente una donación de $845.700 dólares para desarrollar un proyecto con el Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda, I.A.P (GESGIAP) que buscará potenciar la capacidad de 5.000 pequeños productores agropecuarios y hortelanas para mitigar y adaptarse al cambio climático a través de la transferencia de la metodología de manejo holístico que les permitirá regenerar el suelo, mejorar la productividad y generar servicios ecosistémicos, como la captura de carbono en suelo y la infiltración hidrológica. La adopción de esta metodología holística les permitirá mejorar sus ingresos, reducir el costo por insumos y obtener compensaciones por la captura de carbono en el suelo.

La degradación de la tierra en México afecta a dos de cada tres hectáreas, resultando anualmente en una pérdida del 10% del Producto Interno Bruto (PIB). Esta problemática se ve afectada por eventos climáticos como inundaciones, sequías o cambios en la frecuencia e intensidad de lluvia, sin embargo la principal causa de la degradación de los suelos en el país (35%) se asocia a las actividades agrícolas y pecuarias. El sector agropecuario contribuye de manera significativa a las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero (GEI) pero al mismo tiempo posee un gran potencial de mitigación. De acuerdo al Programa Especial de Cambio Climático 2014-2018 para México, al 2020 el sector agropecuario será el quinto emisor de GEI en el país, contribuyendo con el 14% de las emisiones. Las estrategias de dicho programa incluyen implementar prácticas agropecuarias, forestales y pesqueras sustentables que reduzcan emisiones y disminuyan la vulnerabilidad de ecosistemas y desarrollar instrumentos que promuevan dicha implementación.

El proyecto aprobado busca abordar esta problemática a través de tres acciones. Primero, sensibilizará, capacitará y proporcionará asistencia técnica a productores mediante talleres, visitas de asistencia técnica, establecimiento de pilotos demostrativos, desarrollo de planes de pastoreo así como foros regionales y nacionales de intercambio de experiencias entre pares. Segundo, se diseñará e implementará un sistema de medición, reporte y verificación (MRV) que promueva la transparencia en las acciones de mitigación al cambio climático atribuibles a la adopción de la metodología de manejo holístico (monitoreo de carbono en el suelo y recuperación biológica). Tercero, una vez verificadas las acciones de mitigación atribuibles se compensará, a los pequeños productores, la captura de carbono en suelo por manejo holístico mediante un mecanismo sub-nacional que canalizará recursos provenientes de impuestos ambientales para realizar el pago por servicios ambientales a los pequeños productores. De manera adicional, se podrán ofrecer estas compensaciones a empresas y/o individuos que deseen neutralizar o mitigar su huella de carbono quienes podrán hacerlo mediante una plataforma en línea.

LEE MÁS
LEE MÁS ARTÍCULOS EN ESPAÑOL

IFOAM Organics International: Why the French “4 Per 1000” Initiative?

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France officially launches the “4 per 1000 Initiative” to combat climate change and feed the world through regenerative agriculture.

This video features Stéphane Le Foll, the French Minister of Agriculture and Andre Leu, President of IFOAM Organics International explaining the importance of the French “4 per 1000” Initiative to reverse climate change by sequestering carbon in the soil.

Check out the latest updates on the “4 per 1000” Initiative.

Watch More Videos on Regeneration International’s YouTube Channel

Ronnie Cummins: A Message of Hope From Paris COP21

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An interview with Ronnie Cummins International Director of the Organic Consumers Association and Regeneration International, from the 2015 UN World Climate Summit. Ronnie explains how consumers and farmers can unite to launch a global regeneration movement.

The French “4 per 1000” Initiative:

As of today, December 3, more than 50 national governments, activist organizations and stakeholder organizations (including the Organic Consumers Association and Mexico affiliate, Via Organica) have signed on to the French government’s “4 Per 1000 Initiative: Soils for Food Security and Climate” declaration. The declaration emphasizes that agriculture, and agricultural soils in particular, can play a crucial role in reversing global warming and increasing global food security.

Based on a growing body of farming practices and scientific evidence, the French government’s Initiative invites all partners to declare or to implement practical programs for carbon sequestration in soil and for the types of farming methods used to promote it (e.g. agroecology, agroforestry, conservation agriculture and landscape management).

According to Andre Leu, president of IFOAM Organics International, the French Initiative on sequestering atmospheric carbon in soils via regenerative ag practices is “historic, marking the first time that international climate negotiators and stakeholders have recognized the strategic imperative of transforming and regenerating our global food and farming system in order to reverse global warming.”

Learn More and Join the Movement